Controversy erupted yesterday over a media report that said Taipei Mayor Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) planned to seek donations from corporations to provide performance bonuses to city employees.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily report quoted Ko’s chief of staff Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如) as saying that Ko had asked the Taipei City Government’s Department of Finance to look into establishing an “achievement fund” to reward city government employees — thus reducing the number of employees who receive the same salaries for different standards of work. She was also quoted as saying that if such a fund could not be established the mayor would use his monthly NT$150,000 discretionary fund to reward outstanding employees.
The mayor is known for his work ethic, with media reports recently on his requirement that department commissioners to be available around the clock via messaging app Line.
Taipei City Government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) yesterday confirmed that Ko was considering establishing such a fund, but said that there were not yet any definite plans.
“The discussion [about the achievement fund] is still very ‘rough,’” he said. “There is also the issue of public perception and legality, because there are currently no clear legal guidelines.”
The city government’s Department of Finance Commissioner Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said that any achievement fund would have to have to be approved by the national government, as well as by the Taipei City Council as part of the budgeting process — even if it were established with corporate donations.
Department of Finance spokesman Yu Shih-ming (游適銘) said that because there is no clear legal foundation for such a fund, its establishment would mean requesting that the national government either amend the law or else prepare an official interpretation of current law.
News that the Ko was considering soliciting corporate donations to establish the fund drew criticism from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) city councilors.
“You attack the bureaucracy on one hand and corporations on the other, then try to solicit money from corporations to cover the bureaucracy,” KMT Taipei City Councilor Hsu Hung-ting (徐弘庭) said.
Accepting such donations would call into question Ko’s impartiality in his quest to renegotiate contract terms for city development development projects, KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) has made a three-phased compulsory evacuation plan for Hualien County’s Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) disaster zone ahead of the potential formation of a typhoon. The plan includes mandatory vertical evacuation using air-raid-style alarms if needed, CEOC chief coordinator Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) told a news conference in the county yesterday. Volunteers would be prohibited from entering the disaster area starting tomorrow, the retired general said. The first phase would be relocating vulnerable residents, including elderly people, disabled people, pregnant women and dialysis patients, in shelters and hospitals, he said. The second phase would be mandatory evacuation of residents living in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS